March 28, 2011

Attorney, a Harvard Law Grad, Called Out by D.C. Judge for "Garbled" Filings

Including a receipt for veterinary services for a 75-pound Labrador, along with other "irrelevant" submissions, in filings for a suit regarding a mortgage payment dispute landed a New York attorney in trouble with U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle.

Huvelle, in a written opinion Friday, dismissed a suit filed by New York attorney Brud Rossmann. Rossmann, who lives in Washington as well as New York, sued Chase Home Finance LLC in October in Washington federal court, claiming the lender misapplied payments he made toward a property he had bought in Virginia.

Noting that Rossmann graduated from Harvard Law School in 1989, Huvelle chastised him for filing a complaint that was “complex, garbled, and accompanied by hundreds of 'exhibits,' which appear to have been assembled in no particular order.” One of these filings included a bill for veterinary services for the Labrador, Huvelle wrote in a footnote.

As a practicing attorney, Huvelle wrote, he is held to a higher standard in how he pursues a claim than other pro se applicants who are not attorneys.

A phone number listed for Rossmann was out of service. Rossmann has been a member of the New York State Bar Association since 1990, but is not listed as a member of the D.C. Bar.

Chase argued that the court lacked jurisdiction to consider the case, since the defendants are based in New Jersey and Delaware and the property in question is in Virginia. Huvelle agreed, writing that while Rossmann may live in Washington, that does not automatically give him the right to file every case in his hometown federal court district.

David Panzer of Washington’s Greenberg Traurig represented Chase. He could not immediately be reached today for comment.